3
K.K.K
Sherlock Holmes sat silently, and watched the fire. Then he said to me, 'John Openshaw is in real danger. Why did his Uncle Elias have to leave America? Because he had enemies. When he came back to England he was afraid. That's why he lived a lonely life and locked all his doors so carefully. Now where did those letters come from? Did you see?'
'The first from Pondicherry in India, the second from Dundee in Scotland and the third from East London,' I answered.
'Does that tell you anything?' asked Holmes.
'They're all sea ports. The writer was on a ship when he wrote the letters,' I replied. I was pleased with my answer.
'Very good, Watson,' said Holmes. 'Somebody sent some pips from India, and arrived seven weeks later to kill Uncle Elias. Then he sent some pips from Scotland and arrived three days later to kill John's father. Do you see why I'm worried now? He has sent pips to John from London! John's enemy is in London already!'
'Good God, Holmes!' I cried. 'Who is man?'
'More than one man, I thing. They belong to the Ku Klux Klan. That explains the "K.K.K.". Haven't you ever heard of it? It's a very secret group of Americans from the South. They wanted to stop equality for black People and to kill anyone who didn’t agree with them. The police couldn’t stop them. But in 1869 Uncle Elias, who belonged to this secret group, suddenly left America with all their papers, and so the group could not go on. Of course the group wanted to get the papers back. You remember the half-burnt paper? That was Uncle Elias’s American diary. While he was working for the K.K.K., he sent the pips to frighten those three men. Two left the country, but one didn’t, so the K.K.K. finished business with him or killed him. The K.K.K. always worked like that.
Well I hope they won’t kill young Openshaw, I said
4
The Last Deaths
But they did. The next morning we read in the news-paper that John Openshaw was dead. A policeman found him in the river near Waterloo station. The police said it was an accident, but Holmes was very angry about it.
He came to me for help and those men murdered him! I’m going to find them, if it’s the last thing I do! He said to me, and he hurried out of the house.
In the evening, when he came back to Baker Street, he was tired, but pleased. Watson! He said I know the names of Openshaw’s enemies! And now I’m going to send them a surprise! This will frighten them! He took five pips from an orange and put them in an envelope. On it he wrote S.H. for J.C.
I’m sending the pips, not from the K.K.K., but from me, Sherlock Holmes, to Captain James Calhoun. His ship is called the Star. He and his men are sailing back to Georgia, USA now.
How did you find him, Holmes? I asked.
Ship’s papers, he said. I’ve looked at hundreds of them today. Only one ship, the Star, was in the three ports at the right times, and this morning the Star left London to sail back to Georgia. I found out that the captain and two of his men, all Americans, weren’t on the ship last night, so I’m sure they killed poor John Openshaw. When they arrive in America, they’ll get the pips and then police will catch them!
Sherlock Holmes is a very clever detective, but he can do nothing about the weather. The winter storms at sea that year were worse than ever, and so the Star never arrived in Georgia, and nobody saw the captain or his men again. The murderers of John Openshaw did not get the pips, but, in the end, death came to them